An incidence of friendly fire, an inadvertent firing toward one's own or otherwise friendly forces. Also, this song.

From today's Sunday Star-Times story on the events that precipitated Judith Collins' resignation:

Knowing Fairfax was investigating the hacked emails, it is believed Odgers (known by the blog name Cactus Kate) went through her own emails and found some that could be seen as implicating Collins. This correspondence then found its way to a Beehive staffer on Friday.

"I take it you found the smoking gun," Odgers said in an email to Fairfax shortly before Collins resigned. She declined to comment further yesterday.

In fact, Fairfax did not have that particular incriminating email, and the hacker known as Rawshark said yesterday he did not have it either. "That email wasn't leaked by me, I had nothing to do with it," said Rawshark, who was also the source for Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics.

Just so we're absloutely clear about this: Judith Collins didn't resign because of anything Nicky Hager did. Rather, she resigned because Cathy Odgers gave the PM's office an email that neither Nicky Hager nor the hacker who stole a bunch of other information had seen, in which a certain blogger whom we don't name said some stuff about Judith Collins that she claims is absolutely false.

@Katharine Collins' conduct has not taken place in her capacity as a legal practitioner, so most of the rules of professional misconduct don't apply. However, if she is convicted of an offence - even while not acting as a lawyer - she could be sanctioned and some quarters (Matthew Hooton in particular) are calling for a criminal investigation into this affair.

The Law Society has to act with procedural and substantive fairness, so it is not going to go off half cocked on this. Which is fair enough.

@Peter But she will be owed big time by John Key for finally giving him an excuse to cut her free. The National elves are busy trying to spin it as a positive.\; I was surprised by the number of pro Key/National e-mails on Wallace Chapman's show on Radio NZ show this morning given the usually more left-of-politics responses he usually gets.

The factions in the National party are now being publically exposed and contrary to the PR well oiled machine image, show not just division on idealogy or policy but the stark reality of good versus bad. If the rot can be cut out in time National will survive but on current observation there won't be a whole lot of the apple left.

Ok ed, fair enough, your show. How about this as something not so “personal” but very relevant to the blogger whom must not be mentioned and his friend the recent EX National justice minister.

Section 116 Crimes Act. Conspiring to defeat justice: Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who conspires to obstruct, prevent, pervert, or defeat the course of justice in New Zealand or the course of justice in an overseas jurisdiction.

Do you think there has been some kind of 'black list' operating in Government, with other ministers also gunning for targets, and their efforts being systematically amplified by Whale Oil and his network?

Will it be possible to get a wide-ranging, independent inquiry into the network of Ministers and others linked up with Whale Oil, and how far that network has reached into government?

Can any of this fairly happen before the election? Don't New Zealanders need some facts that they can trust about this before they cast their votes this time around?

Given the gravity of the constitutional issues (and the number of lawyers) involved, shouldn't the Law Society and other similar bodies be exerting themselves to make sure that a robust inquiry is set up - ie. one that can't be rigged?

Who is going to trust any inquiry set up by government, under the circumstances?